Helping one of my granddaughters with long division the other day, I compared what we were doing to the physical exercise her brother was pursuing with a passion out front — shooting basketballs.
She looked out at him with a thoughtful gaze.
“Grandpa, I feel like my mind is dribbling around in here until it can find the right answer.”
Good word choice.
Any neurologist will tell you that it’s good to play word and number games, not just for kids but most especially as you age to help fend off premature dementia. I’m not suggesting this is a solution to that complicated problem but medical opinion seems to generally hold that games like Scrabble can help.
Two of my sons have waged a long-term competition via Words with Friends that has lasted years. Slowly the younger is catching up to the older in win percentage.
But the rage with words online at present is Wordle, which a software engineer in Brooklyn named Josh Wardle created last November; by now it has become a daily habit for hundreds of thousands of people, including me.
The game, which occupies all of maybe three minutes a day, invites you to guess a five-letter word. You get six tries. After each guess, you discover which of the letters you’ve chosen are indeed part of the secret word and whether you’ve discovered their position in the word correctly yet.
So far I’ve been able to guess the word correctly the seven times I’ve played, usually by the forth try, though once I lucked out and got it on the third.
My only complaint is that I can only play this game once each day, whereas I can play robots in Scrabble multiple times each day, so for Mr. Wardle, should he read this, I have a request:
Expand the game to multiple words per day. After all, there are by most estimates 5,350-8,996 of those in English.
Or you could add words of various lengths. Then the choices approach the infinite.
THURSDAY’s HEADLINES:
Has the United States become ungovernable? (BBC)
The Senate’s Dangerous Inability to Protect Democracy (New Yorker)
Surprise in $216 Billion Budget Plan: New York Is Awash in Money (NYT)
House Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump-allied attorneys Giuliani, Powell (WP)
New York Attorney General Letitia James took legal action against former President Donald Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, seeking to compel them to testify in a civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s financial dealings. James said her office has uncovered "significant evidence" suggesting the Trumps misrepresented assets to secure loans or insurance coverage for buildings in New York City, among other holdings. The Trump family has sued the attorney general’s office to block subpoenas and have the suit thrown out. [HuffPost]
Hurricanes, wildfires and snowstorms are becoming increasingly more common in the Sierra Nevada foothills. (WSJ)
Inflation in Britain rose faster than expected to a near 30-year high in December, intensifying a squeeze on living standards and putting pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates again. (Reuters)
How to Navigate Rising Food Prices as Inflation Surges (WSJ)
Microsoft will buy Activision Blizzard, betting $70 billion on the future of games. (NYT)
Microsoft Megadeal Powers Its Netflix-of-Gaming Aspirations (WSJ)
Microsoft bought Activision because gaming is the new social media (WP)
WHO says ‘no evidence’ healthy children need boosters amid global vaccine inequity (WP)
VIDEO: Earthquakes in Afghanistan Kill at Least 27, Including Children (AP)
Taliban victory unleashes hardline forces in Pakistan (Financial Times)
How the U.S. helps vulnerable Afghans without recognizing the Taliban (WP)
COVID hospitalizations in Bay Area near all-time high (SFC)
Two million. That’s the number of unvaccinated people in Los Angeles County — more than three times the population of Wyoming, and a commentary on the sheer scale of the county, the nation’s most populous by far. It’s also an indicator on how vulnerable Los Angeles remains to the coronavirus. (Cal Today)
Firearms, a drone and 30 days of supplies: New details of Oath Keepers Jan. 6 weapons cache (Politico)
Jon Stewart to receive the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center in April (WP)
Snow falls in Algeria's Sahara Desert (BBC)
Australia threw out an invitation to backpackers, seeking reinforcements for a workforce crippled by an Omicron COVID-19 outbreak as the country's health system creaks under the pandemic's strain with more deaths predicted in weeks ahead. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government was waiving the visa application fee for any backpacker or student who arrives within the next 12 weeks, and encouraged them to seek work as they tour the country. (Reuters)
University of Michigan agrees to $490 million settlement in sex abuse scandal (WP)
An Electrifying Adaptation of a Murakami Short Story — In Drive My Car, a vehicle becomes a meditative space for confessions, regrets, and revelations. (Atlantic)
Area Dad Sure Knows A Lot About Local Weather Woman (The Onion)
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